I go back to the top of the slide
Then I stop and I turn
And I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom
And I see you again
I?'m trying to keep this in chronological order as I try and shed 2005/06 out of my system.
1- The season started well enough and it was topped off by the Chairman?s mystic, cryptic barb at the anti-Rangers sections of the Scottish press. ?They know who they are?, he said. ?So do we?, we cheered by way of reply. So is it good management that you identify a problem, and a major problem at that, and then leave it unresolved? For anyone reading this; you decide!
We meandered into autumn and it was very, very apparent that the wheels had came crashing off the Eck Express. Draws to Falkirk, Dundee Utd and then at Livi when added to the defeats at Hearts and Aberdeen signalled that it was endgame for us league wise. This is a truly disgraceful admission for any Rangers fan to make so early in the season.
Now this is where I actually do find sympathy for that devil called Dave. He knew deep down that the manager had to go, he knew within himself who he wanted and targeted that person, but that person was already committed to a contract elsewhere. So what to do?
I?m of the opinion he couldn?t bring in the future manager?s assistant because negotiations at that point could have been classed as delicate? or ?in the balance? and not ?a done deal?. Could he go back the way and call in previous managers? I?m not so sure the effect that would have had on the support. But however which way you may care to look at this situation; sticking with the lame duck Alex McLeish as manager has cost us a pop at the Champions League next season. I just don?t see that that argument is up for debate.
As much as I am not the outgoing manager?s biggest fan, he is also deserving of a certain amount of sympathy. How demoralising must it have been for the man to read the Chairman giving him a mid-term three game project in which to save his job? And then there was the headlines to the effect; ?Alex already knows who the new manager is?. Take Alex McLeish out of the scenario and insert yourself and see how you would feel in those circumstances.
2 ? So, you know that the manager is not good enough and a lot of your future, which is going to be invested in someone else hinges on at least finishing second in a two-horse race, far less being overtaken by a Balkans financed donkey. Was it good management to allow Alex McLeish to stay in a job? For anyone reading this; you decide!
You can take it as read that Nowhere Thursday 8/12/2005 was not a good day for the Rangers support. The title race was over, but we still had to listen to codswallop from the Chairman that the manager looked him in the eyes and he was still up for the fight.
Elsewhere on that bleak day for the support a shining light had emerged in the brash and vibrant spokesman for The Rangers Supporters? Trust, David Edgar. I?ll keep it brief, in the last year there has been a change of tact within the RST and there are two different spokesmen combating the mhedia. Stephen Smith doing the wordy things and the aforementioned Mr Edgar doing the mouthy stuff.
Ask yourselves one question. Is it just down to coincidence that the RST now has various mhedia filth all across Scotland foaming at the mouth? Nah, me neither.
The RST had made a significant impact in the November when they pointed out that Rangers fans were NINETY times more likely to be arrested at CP during the CIS Cup tie, despite the fact that the whole of Scotland could hear 50,000 yahoos singing that Alex McLeish was a ?Sad Orange Bastard? during the game.
3 - Rangers were due back at the cesspit the following week on league business. So in the run up to that match what did the club do? Did they hit out at the Police, and ask questions to back up the RST?s findings and the support to the hilt? Nope, quite unbelievably they backed the corrupt Strathclyde Police Force.
Is it good management to allow your own support to be victimised by people working to a sectarian agenda, especially in a supposedly anti-sectarian environment? For anyone reading this; you decide!
4 ? As I said earlier, December 2005 wasn?t a good place to be for a bear, but November may just have been even worse. Apart from allowing the yahoos and a bent Police force to walk all over us, the Chairman in his wisdom decided that it would be a jolly, decent wheeze to allow one of his boardroom stooges to go to a memorial service in honour of the bigot who introduced sectarianism into sport in the West of Scotland.
So is it good management to sign up to an anti-Rangers/Protestant charade and always play the bad guys? For anyone reading this; you decide!
5 - On and on this sad tale of sectarian woes goes. The mhedia told us before we played our first leg against Villarreal in the CL that the support would be under scrutiny for naughty words. We were tried and found guilty before a ball was kicked.
But it didn?t stop there. A non-entity of a Rangers hating journalist has consistently baited the club and support for all of this calendar year telling all and sundry that UEFA were going to hammer Rangers for the naughty word song. He has been so smug and superior that he has also basically admitted that an individual at the SFA has also been complicit in this anti-Rangers agenda.
But after being put in the dock by UEFA and then found not guilty, an even bigger frenzy of hatred has emerged and the people who you may have previously just thought were against you have now nailed their colours thoroughly to the mast.
So is it good management that you actually know there are people out there who hate and despise you, and who are working to a fixed agenda, to do your organisation harm, and you allow them to walk all over you? For anyone reading this; you decide!
6 - Just when you thought it couldn?t actually get any worse The Blue Order announce on Easter Friday, that they have not been allowed to do a banner display to get the fans going in a crucial league match at home to Aberdeen. Remember, this game is crucial to the club?s future.
But actually it does get worse; a whole lot worse. Not only do TBO tell you that the club have informed them that they are not allowing Rangers fans to do a display IN THEIR OWN STADIUM, they are allowing Aberdeen fans to have a wee display instead.
So, is it good management that you ban your own fans from helping the match day atmosphere, but allow utter vermin who sings songs having a laugh at 66 dead Rangers fans and dismantled young Rangers players to Lord it over you in your own stadium? For anyone reading this; you decide!
One of the sadder things about this modern world we find ourselves part of, is this new-fangled so called Reality TV. It?s a bad and sad day when you have to watch a non-entity singer with no hits, falling in lurv with a blonde non-entity from Essex with big tits. And it all unfolds in front of your very eyes.
One of the better ideas regards reality TV however has been Alan Sugar?s performances in ?The Apprentice?. Personally speaking, I think it?s quite nice watching a scruffy/shaggy/rumple faced old git with a nice line in suits and ties put mad-haired harpies, Pauline Quirke look-alikes and other muppets in their place.
But here?s the thing. What if Mr Sugar made David Murray a Team Leader at the start of the season and told him, his only job was to make sure that Rangers FC at least were in the CL qualifiers next season and stick up for his club and support? What two words do you think he would have used across the boardroom table when the results came in?
I just don?t think I will ever be able to fathom out the David Murray era. It?s highs and lows with no middle. It?s Black and White with absolutely no grey areas. This Chairman, this season has secured the services of possibly the most sought-after manager in the world, yet he allows filth on our own doorstep to rubbish our club?
Next season will see a honeymoon/lovey-dovey period between the fans and club begin again. As I see it, if the Chairman was to act forcefully in the here and now, that honeymoon period might last for a whole lot longer.
The Govanhill Gub.